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As long as the Obama administration continues to push for performance standards and competition among states, the contest for Race to the Top federal education grants is a chance to make real education reforms, writes Harold E. Ford Jr., Louis V. Gerstner Jr. and Eli Broad in this Wall Street Journal opinion article. Only the states with the best track records and the best leadership deserve the funds, and they should become models of education reform across the country, they write.

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A $2 million grant competition is looking for the best new ideas in digital learning. Sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the contest is calling on educators, experts, designers and researchers to create 21st-century learning labs to help students learn through digital collaboration. "This competition will help ensure that the new and highly engaging approaches to science, technology, engineering, and math find their way into schools, libraries, museums, and other spaces for learning," the foundation's education director said.

A pilot program in an Alabama school district is helping high-school students who struggle with reading and comprehension skills. Read 180 helps students by providing them immediate feedback, and the program allows teachers to closely track students' progress, said an educator who uses the program. Five of the seven Birmingham district's high schools did not reach reading-proficiency levels on the latest high-school exit exams, and officials hope programs such as Read 180 help students improve.

Television chef is teaming up with the New York City education department to help reduce childhood obesity, overhauling lunch programs in 1,600 of the city's public schools. Ray's foundation, Yum-O, will work with the department to develop meals that are both healthy and appealing to the city's schoolchildren. New York City public schools have a childhood obesity rate of 40%.

Louisiana education officials say they are working to ensure that a new career-diploma program enacted in about a dozen districts holds real value for students. While the program has been criticized as a lowering of academic standards, state officials say the program is intended to engage students who would otherwise drop out of school. While the new track was approved by legislators in July, the state board of education is expected to finish developing the specifics of the program in December.

The national service program Teach for America made its debut in Minnesota this year, bringing in 43 new teachers to help narrow the achievement gap in the state's most disadvantaged schools. The new teachers are recent college graduates who will earn their certifications during their two-year commitment to Minnesota classrooms. Program officials say participants are smart and willing to work hard, but representatives of the state teachers union have expressed concerns about placing untrained teachers in the state's neediest classrooms.